Bennett adopted this alter ego to liberate himself from the preconceptions that were often associated with his Aboriginal heritage and his identity and reputation as the artist Gordon Bennett. The reality is, however, that I have never really had much choice; and I have been faced with my work not entering some collections on the grounds of it being not Aboriginal enough, to being asked to sell my work through stalls at cultural festivalsGordon Bennett 2. Gordon Bennett (1955- 2014) was born in Monto, Queensland. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. But the oppressive and restrictive laws that governed the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia until the late 1960s continued to impose on her life. Physically, the kitsch Aboriginal motifs copied from Preston are trapped. Literally opening up this black skin of paint are the words cut me. . Buildings and planes collide. Performance with object for the expiation of guilt (Violence and grief remix) 1996, is a remix of an earlier video performance work, Performance with object for the expiation of guilt, 1995. Collect and find photographs of a wide variety of people of different ethnicities, cultures and physical appearances. The resource provides frameworks for exploring key issues and ideas in Bennetts art practice. Discover Gordon Bennett's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. At art college Bennett discovered how Australian identity was built on a subjective writing of history. Possession Island displays a photocopy of Samuel Calvert's engraving, Captain Cook . Gordon Bennett 3. Six years after his death at the age of 58, his Sell with Artsy Artist Series Portraits of Artists and Sculptors 113 available Theyre buried, and this is a way of bringing them back into memory, but remembered in a different way from the way that I was taught, looking at them from a different angle and looking at how they work, where they came from initially, and how these images still support contemporary stereotypes, etc. RM 2JEMG56 - A rare old photograph of the 1903 Gordon Bennett trophy race, Ireland - In the 'pits' attendants are cooling down an overheated vehicle with a bucket of water. Jenna Gribbon, April studio, parting glance, 2021. While personal experience has had a significant influence on Gordon Bennetts art practice, the autobiographical aspects of his work are framed by bigger ideas and questions that have relevance and significance beyond Bennetts own experience. This activity could be done as a group activity with different students researching different dates/events and presenting talks to the class about their significance. This approach involved a flattening of the picture surface and often the use of disparate visual elements or styles borrowed or copied from different sources. cat. The dresser draw labelled self is closed while the drawers for history and culture are ajar. I needed to change direction at least for a while. She attempted to create works that reflected a sense of national identity by incorporating Aboriginal motifs and colours in her work. (2nd Edition), What is Appropriation? He painted his most famous work, Guernica (1937), in response to the Spanish Civil War; the totemic grisaille canvas remains a definitive work of anti-war art. Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, pp. While some people may argue this has been a quick road to success, and that my work is authorised by my Aboriginality, I maintain that I dont have to be an Aborigine to do what I do, and that quick success is not an inherent attribute of an Aboriginal heritage, as history has shown, nor is it that unusual for college graduates who have something relevant to say. I had never thought to question those narratives and I certainly had never been taught at school to question them only to believe them. There are many visual signs that recur throughout Bennetts artworks, including: Each of these signs brings significant meaning to Bennetts work and plays an important role in his investigation of issues and ideas related to identity, understanding and perception. In 2003, Bennett embarked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings, marking a dramatic shift in his art practice, formally and conceptually. Linear perspective is a system for organising visual information. a moment of possession; the place where he came ashore and allegedly claimed . Gordon Bennett 3. One of the longterm goals for my work is to have my paintings returned to the pages of text books from which many of the images in them originated, where they may act as sites around which a more enlightened kind of knowledge may circulate; perhaps a knowledge that is understood from the outset as culturally relative Gordon Bennett 4. It is appropriation of an image that has already been copied with an image that has become central in the pysche of an Australian history. Bennett simultaneously obscures and draws attention to the Aboriginal man standing next to Cook, overlaying an abstract geometric shape which recalls constructivist art and the Aboriginal flag. Why? In 1999 Bennett adopted an alter ego and began making and exhibiting Pop Art inspired images under the name of John Citizen, a persona representative of the Australian Mr Average. Explain how these images might have influenced perceptions of Australian identity? Indeed, he explains that before the age of sixteen he was not really aware of his Indigenous heritage. The purchase of this artwork by the Whitlam Labor Government (19731975) was fraught with controversy. While Bennetts art is grounded in his personal struggle for identity as an Australian of Aboriginal and AngloCeltic descent, it presents and examines a broad range of philosophical questions related to the construction of identity, perception and knowledge. I didnt go to art college to graduate as an Aboriginal Artist. The dynamic juxtaposition of images, sound and other effects made possible by video, introduced new dimensions to Bennetts investigation of issues and ideas related to identity, history and language. Black angels replace traditional white cherubs. Ontological questions as to what essentially is architecture, painting, sculpture, drawing, and print elicited numerous answers in the early modern period, due in part to experimentation and development in technical, formal, and discursive practices during the Middle Ages. Discuss with reference to examples in at least two works by Bennett. Gordon Bennett 1. Bennett repositions the subject of the painting in other ways too, by including black footprints that diminish into the background of the composition. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 oil and acrylic on canvas 182 x 182cm Collection: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Tate, purchased jointly with funds provided by the Qantas Foundation, 2016 The Estate of Gordon Bennett Roundels relating to symbols that denote significant sites in Aboriginal Western Desert dot painting also appear. It is based on a newspaper photograph of Bennetts mother and another young Aboriginal woman, dressed in crisp white uniforms, polishing the elaborate architectural fittings in a grand interior of a homestead in Singleton. What systems and/or conventions are used by each culture to represent three dimensional space? This image also translates to mean: In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Find examples of the work of these artists. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. She was one of the first Australian artists to recognise the spiritual significance of Aboriginal art and the land. She was once thought to be the last surviving Tasmanian Aborigine. See more ideas about artist, art, straight photography. The Whitlam Government abolished the last remnants of the White Australia policy, established diplomatic relations with China and advocated Aboriginal land rights, to name just a few of these changes. The mirror, a recurring symbol within his work, is not a two- dimensional illusion but a literal construct. James Gordon Bennett Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014. Possession Island 1991 was recently purchased by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW. Bennett has often used dots in his artworks as part of his investigation of issues of identity, and history. In Possession Island No 2 this figure is concealed and transformed into an abstract totem or geometric monument coloured with the signature black, red and yellow of the Aboriginal flag. In the third panel of Bennetts triptych, Empire, a Roman triumphal arch frames a stately figure. It is uttered by all good Muslims before a good deed. Explain. While self- portraits usually address issues of personal identity, Bennett uses this form of representation to also look at issues of identity on a national scale. That is not my intention, I have my own experiences of being crowned in Australia, as an Urban Aboriginal artist underscored as that title is by racism and primitivism and I do not wear it well. With eyes closed, these heads appear as blind, mute and lifeless witnesses to the surrounding conflict and struggle. Bennetts art is not always easy to look at. In images such as these, Aboriginal people are often absent or relegated to the background. References SOLD FEB 10, 2023. Collect a range of images (both art and media sources) that depict characters that are perceived or presented as typically Australian. Celebrations continued throughout the year and gave renewed focus to traditional images and stories of the nations settlement history. Place each photograph on a separate layer, overlap and morph or merge all the portraits into one image. These paintings reflect Bennetts belief that after the Notes to Basquiat series of 2003, I had gone as far I could with the postcolonial project I was working through1. Theosophy means god wisdom, the belief that everything living or dead was put together from basic blocks that lead towards consciousness. Brainstorm ideas and meanings associated with these binary opposites and create a mindmap to show how they have influenced your perception and understanding of the world. marking the first car ever to touch the island's soil. The purer the bloodlines, the more Aboriginal you were. I have tried to avoid any simplistic critical containment or stylistic categorisation as an Aboriginal artist producing Aboriginal art by consistently changing stylistic directions and by producing work that does not sit easily in the confines of Aboriginal art collections or definitions. What legal, moral and ethical rights does an artist have to control the way their work is seen and viewed in exhibitions, books or online. . Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 Oil paint and acrylic paint on canvas 1 843 x 1845 mm Tate and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, purchased jointly with funds provided by the Qantas Foundation 2016 Estate of Gordon Bennett CZ: A lot of the featured artists have also created work since 1992. How do these systems/conventions reflect values and ideas important to that culture? The graphic detail in these images, including mutilated, tortured bodies, continue to confront viewers today with the realities of human behaviour and suffering in war. Collection: Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums The Estate of Gordon Bennett Include in your discussion reference to Bennetts appropriation of The nine shots 1985 by Imants Tillers. As an Australian of both Aboriginal and Anglo Celtic descent, Bennett felt he had no access to his indigenous heritage. Voir plus d'ides sur le thme toile de lin, basquiat, art australien. Fri. 10-9, Sat. Thousands of dots fill the canvas. Bennett was concerned that his identity and work was seen as coming from a narrow framework. Bennett's 'unfinished business' was to encourage a great sensitivity and action in terms of these conditions," said Ms Stanhope. The background colours and features of the landscape in each panel of Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire suggest a vast Australian desert . One hand holds a torch a symbol of Enlightenment values that is also seen in The Statue of Liberty in New York that sheds light on darkness. From the beginning of his career, John Citizen had had a complex relationship with Gordon Bennett. Bennett lodges this image in layers of dots and slashes of red and yellow paint that refer to other artists and images. What typically Australian qualities are associated with these characters? Neither had I thought to question the representation of Aborigines as the quintessential primitive Other against which the civilized collective Self of my peers was measured. In your discussion consider meanings and ideas associated with, Compare your interpretation and analysis with others related to this artwork (this could be an interpretation by someone else in your class, or in a commentary on the work in gallery, book, catalogue etc. Bennetts recent abstract paintings reflect links to a range of artists including Australians Robert McPherson, Emily Kam Kngwarray and Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, and International artist Frank Stella. Bloody handprints are stamped across the walls. His joy . This was common practice among young Aboriginal girls and women. Their confidence was rewarded when Possession Island 1991, a triptych in which each panel measured 162 x 130 cm, sold for $384,000. 35, 36. This event was re-enacted in many pageants and dramatisations during Australias Bicentenary in 1988, as a way of celebrating 200 years of Australian history. Bennetts grid formations seem to imprison the figures within the canvas. He had identified with the experience of the fair complexioned, African-American conceptual artist Adrian Piper, who wrote: Blacks like me are unwilling observers of the forms racism takes when racists believe there are no blacks present. He quotes directly from this image, which is in fact a copy of a copy, as Samuel Calvert copied this image of Captain Cook landing in Botany Bay from an image by Gilfillan, which is now lost. He states: The traditionalist studies of Anthropology and Ethnography have thus tended to reinforce popular romantic beliefs of an authentic Aboriginality associated with the Dreaming and images of primitive desert people, thereby supporting the popular judgment that only remote fullbloods are real Aborigines. A long-distance hot-air balloon race (The International Gordon Bennett balloon race), which still continues, was inaugurated by him in 1906. Bennetts art engages with historical and contemporary questions of cultural and personal identity, with a specific focus on Australias colonial past and its postcolonial present. This painting combines the story of Bennetts mother, and other young Aboriginal women in the care of the government or church, with the Christian story. He was born in New York, May 10th 1841 and died 4 days after his 77th Birthday in Beaulieu near Nizza/France. The absence of the Aboriginal servant and the scuttling footprints in Possession Island No 2 suggest the physical dispossession that was to follow once the British claimed ownership of the land. 5. Possession Island 1991 Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas Two parts: 162 x 260cm (overall) The Estate of Gordon Bennett Purchased with funds. Symbols such as these highlight his awareness and use of visual images, forms and elements as signs. One of the most heroic and well-known images of Australias past is Captain Cook landing in Botany Bay in 1770. Bennett painted his version after Australias bicentennial celebrations in 1988. Discuss different approaches/ideas evident in the way each artist uses dots in their work. The vanishing point may also be understood as the point from which these lines extend outward past the picture plane to include the viewer in the pictorial space, positioned as observer of a self contained harmonious whole. Throughout his career Bennett has used many different strategies to engage the viewer in his work. Bennetts use of the grotesque is evident in Outsider, 1988, which makes reference to two paintings by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh (1853 1890) Vincents bedroom in Arles 1888, and Starry night 1889. SOLD FEB 21, 2023. The jack- in- the box is surrounded by symbols, including the grid- like buildings and alphabet blocks, of the knowledge, systems and structures that represent an enlightened, civilised society. The process of translation from one version to the next mimics how history is endlessly translated and transformed by the vagaries oftime and by individual perspectives. This is evident in many of his works, including Outsider. Gordon Bennett 2. What is your personal interpretation of the abstract paintings? Gordon Bennett, Possession Island, 1991, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas; two parts, 162 x 260cm (overall). Outsider depicts, a decapitated Aboriginal figure standing over Vincent van Goghs bed, with red paint streaming skywards to join with the vortex of Vincents starry night. Captain James Cook arrived there in 1770 and claimed ownership of the entire eastern coast of Australia in the name of King George III. An understanding of self in the context of family is not enough. * *Collection: Museum of Sydney on the site of the first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, this was a time to mourn the devastating consequences of 200 years of colonisation. Scan these into the computer using a photographic software package like Photoshop. In the first painting by Bennett, Possession Island 1991 (Museum of Sydney on the site of first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales), the only figure painted in full vibrant colour is an isolated Aboriginal servant holding a drinks tray. But this approach is central to the way many people describe and analyse his work. This work reflects our contemporary obsession with creating the perfect home filled with the latest must have designer style and material items. I decided that I was in a very interesting position: My mind and body had been effectively colonised by Western culture, and yet my Aboriginality, which had been historically, socially and personally repressed, was still part of me and I was obtaining the tools and language to explore it on my own terms. James Gordon Bennett was born on a farm near Enzie, around three miles from Buckie, in 1795 but chose to follow a friend to North America when aged 24 with just 5 in his pocket. Bennetts use of the grid in these and other artworks suggests questions and ideas. In Outsider the energy and intensity associated with van Goghs expressive brushstrokes and brilliant colour contrasts are powerfully explosive . The artist has effectively communicated his beliefs on the suppression of Aboriginal culture by combining confronting imagery with the concepts of Vincent Van Gogh, Francisco Goya and Classical art. Bennett employs this system using diagrams often labelled with acronyms, such as CVP (central vanishing point), that refer to key features of the system. However, for Bennett, dot painting also became a powerful expression of the connections between nature and culture, which are integral to representation in Aboriginal art. The focus on reason, scientific learning and progress that characterised the Enlightenment (suggested by the measuring marks on the torch) lead to many significant discoveries and new ways of understanding the world. The incorporation of Blue Poles calls to mind an era of great reform in Australian politics. Bennett purposefully constructed these layers to blur fixed ideas and raise questions about the way identity is constructed. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). There are a number of reasons why I began painting abstract paintings that focused on overt visual phenomena, as opposed to explicit visual content. John Citizen was an abstraction of the Australian Mr Average, the Australian everyman. When Gordon Bennett was labelled an Aboriginal Artist he was othered as an Aborigine and all the preconceptions that entails. 2, I cant remember exactly when it dawned on me that I had an Aboriginal heritage, I generally say it was around age eleven, but this was my age when my family returned to Queensland where Aboriginal people were far more visible.